He was released on licence in 2011 but on 19 May 2012 he brutally assaulted Kimberley Crighton at Catterline Crescent in Dundee.

He has been jailed for 19 months for the attack.

Dundee Sheriff Court heard that Kilminster had returned from an off licence to the flat the couple shared when an argument began.

The material about the degrading behaviour you subjected her to is not edifying.Alasdair Brown, Sheriff

Fiscal depute Nicola Gillespie said at one point during the row - after violence had erupted - Kilminster had refused to let Miss Crighton leave the bedroom to go to the bathroom, and had ordered her to go to the toilet in the corner of the room.

Miss Gillespie said: "He became aggressive and prevented her leaving the room.

"He pulled the mattress off the bed then pushed her over the sofa.

"He punched her in the face on the right eye.

"She was very scared and asked to go to the toilet but he refused and told her to go in the corner of the room.

"He then pushed her to the ground and put his arm across her throat, restricting her breathing."

When police attended at the flat, they found Miss Crighton with an eye so swollen that it was almost closed.

Drug deal

Kilminster, a prisoner at HMP Perth, pleaded guilty on indictment to assaulting Miss Crighton to her injury.

Jack Brown, defending, said: "He is remorseful for his actions.

"He reflects on the fact that the last time he ever saw Miss Crighton was when this violence was taking place.

"His life licence was revoked 10 days after he was taken into custody and he has a parole board hearing in January."

Jailing Kilminster, Sheriff Alasdair Brown said: "The material about the degrading behaviour you subjected her to is not edifying.

"The offence is aggravated by your record, which consists of a murder conviction."

Kilminster was jailed for life at the High Court in Perth in 1993 after a jury found him guilty of the murder of Spanish student Ignacio Guitart.

He stabbed Mr Guitart - who was studying English at Dundee College of Further Education - to death during a drug deal gone wrong after the student attempted to buy cannabis in April 1993 in Dundee's Hilltown.